Saturday, May 22, 2010

Dalai Lama is a Marxist

TIBETAN spiritual leader the Dalai Lama says he's a Marxist, yet credits capitalism for bringing new freedoms to China, the communist country that exiled him.

"Still I am a Marxist," the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader said in New York, where he arrived today with an entourage of robed monks and a heavy security detail to give a series of paid public lectures.

"(Marxism has) moral ethics, whereas capitalism is only how to make profits," the Dalai Lama, 74, said.

However, he credited China's embrace of market economics for breaking communism's grip over the world's most populous country and forcing the ruling Communist Party to "represent all sorts of classes".

"(Capitalism) brought a lot of positive to China. Millions of people's living standards improved," he said.

I don't get it. How can anyone look at the history of Marxist governments and see morality is beyond me. Which would you rather have? A "feel good" ideology or food on the table? Millions of people in China are out of poverty (while millions still are) because of capitalism, not Marxism.

In reality, capitalism is amoral meaning it's neither good nor evil. Pure capitalism is where individuals make decisions for their own benefit, without a central authority. Sure, Marxism may claim equality for everyone but in practice, it is impossible. It becomes a ruthless competition to be the person making these "moral" decisions and it always ends up in totalitarianism and corruption.

I'm disappointed in the Dalai Lama. Does he just want to replace the CCP as the dictator of Tibet?